Pleygo Review – Netflix-Like Lego Rental Service

We started our Pleygo trial in October with high hopes. The concept is awesome: Pay a monthly fee for access to a theoretically unlimited number of Lego sets– no worries about lost pieces! Awesome! Sign me up!

Pleygo Review: Incredible Concept, Shipping Needs Work

Unfortunately, our actual experience was a little less awesome. While I still think the concept is a good one, there is one major kink that the company is going to have to work out. Shipping time.  It took a full ten days for our first set to get to us. In addition, the burden of replacing missing pieces is on the consumer. Our first set was missing a wheel when it arrived. The Pleygo website has a form for you to fill out to get the missing piece replaced, but it asks you to wait for the piece to arrive before sending the set back. Keep in mind that the set ARRIVED on our doorstep missing a piece– not our fault. Also a little disappointing. We dutifully ordered the replacement, but it was another full two weeks before it arrived. If you’re keeping track, that’s an entire month to play with only one Lego set. Luckily, Judah (my lego-loving son) was OK just playing with it with a missing wheel, otherwise it would have taken a month for us to get to the point where we had a set to start playing with. Either way, our first monthly membership fee of $15 (plus the two more weeks till our next set arrived) went for a set that only costs $20 to buy outright (Amazon price).

Each set is supposed to arrive in an exciting bright red box and include some extra “most commonly used” pieces in a separate baggie– just in case. Our first set arrived in a grey plastic shipping “bag”. The extra pieces were tossed in with all the others.

Once we received the missing piece, we sent the set back and then waited about another two weeks to get our next set. It arrived intact, in an exciting red box, with all the extra pieces separately bagged, and Judah had a blast! He loves getting to add his favorite sets to his List– they do have a pretty great selection. Jamie is excited to get to add in a few Duplo sets too, once we upgrade our membership next month.

Also, as far as I can tell, the website is really good and the customer support is quite helpful. As I stated before, I do think this concept is great and I would love to see it succeed. I hope that our first month’s experience was an anomaly and that the shipping gets more efficient as the company gets more experienced.